by M. D. Massey
As I neared the house, I deepened the shadows that hid me, while dispersing the edges to break up my silhouette. Once the house was in sight, I drew as close as possible without revealing my presence, noting that lights were on within. Nestling myself high within the thick foliage of an oak tree, I slowed my breathing and stilled my mind as I observed the property.
Nothing stirred for an hour or more, then a late-model Japanese luxury sedan with dark tinted windows pulled into the drive. Two males exited the house as the car parked—one a tall, dark-skinned, muscular man with a mix of fae and human features, the other my missing courier. They waited patiently on the front walk, the courier fidgeting with the zipper on his jacket while his half-fae companion leaned against one of the square wooden columns that supported the porch roof.
The driver exited the vehicle with the smart, precise movements of a mature higher vampire. He was Asian, of middling height, and had the lean build of a fencer. The vampire stepped around the tail end of the vehicle, opening the rear right door for his passenger with notable decorum.
A middle-aged woman with dusky skin and short dark hair stepped out of the back seat of the sedan. She wore a tailored black blazer and matching skirt, a white silk blouse, a pearl necklace, and matching earrings—the sort of classic fashion favored by older vampires. Her movements were not hurried, and she flowed with a grace and balance that belied her apparent age. It didn’t take a genius to determine that she was likely older than her apparent years by at least a few centuries.
What in the world is this vampire doing in Austin?
I remained absolutely still, turning my attention instead to the half-fae. On examining him in the magical spectrum, I deduced that he was a practitioner of some skill. For one, he had several powerful magical artifacts on his person, and second, he smelled of fae magic recently cast. Every magic-user’s spell work carried with it a distinct character that marked the user, and this one’s power reminded me of the residue left in my laboratory. He was definitely the mage who’d cast the recall spell on the courier.
The mage waited patiently where he stood, hands clasped in front of him, while the courier took a deferential stance, head lowered as he waited for the master vampire to approach. She took her time, her heels clicking a slow cadence as she strolled up the front walk.
“I see you’ve retrieved Montague,” she said to the wizard, ignoring the courier completely. Her voice was deep for a woman, her tone, condescending. “I understand he was accosted on the way to completing his task.”
The half-fae nodded with contrived deference as he replied, his bass voice carrying just the slightest hint of a New York accent. “My apologies for pulling you away from your work here, Amelia. However, I have the situation in hand. No further harm will come to your offspring.”
The Asian man—obviously her bodyguard—tensed at the familiar tone and language the mage used with his master. I knew little of vampire politics, but if his principal wasn’t working for the Vampyri Council, I’d give up the practice of dark magic forever and become a philanthropist. Leaning forward, I magically enhanced my hearing to ensure that I captured every word of the conversation.
“Ah yes—my work,” Amelia hissed. “Might I remind you, Grythelias, that it is our work—all our work. And despite the interference of that annoying druid justiciar, the Council still intends to see it through.”
“Yes, yes,” Grythelias replied in a mocking tone. “As you’ve said, so many times.”
Amelia chuckled mirthlessly. “You need us, and your people know it. If you want to see your end of the plan through, you’ll need our numbers to make that happen.”
Plan? What plan is that, I wonder?
“Not my concern.” Grythelias shrugged. “Way above my paygrade.”
“As you say,” the female vampire replied. “Unlike you, I am loyal to my kind, and I long for the day when we no longer have to hide in the shadows. I’ll do anything to see that day come to pass.”
“Luther seems to be doing a fine job of hiding in plain sight.” The wizard tsked with practiced indifference. “Perhaps the Council should be taking a page from his playbook.”
“Pfah. Luther is a pandering sympathizer, and his coven is starving, all because of his noble decree.”
Grythelias wiped a mote from the corner of his eye with a knuckle. “He claims they are all volunteers, coven and cattle both, and that at some point he’ll have a herd large enough to support his coven most comfortably. There are three billion humans on this planet, after all. You’d think the Council would’ve figured out by now that there’s enough for everyone.”
The Council knows what you don’t, wizard—volunteers are hard to come by, and they don’t last long when fed upon too often.
The Asian vampire blurred forward, grabbing the wizard by the lapels of his jacket. “You go too far, half-breed.”
Grythelias affected a bored look, but there was steel in his voice when he spoke. “Amelia, I suggest you call off your dog, before his tail gets docked.”
The confidence with which the wizard spoke could’ve been a bluff—and at first blush, it most likely was. No mortal or half-fae wizard could cast a spell quickly enough to stop a vampire in close proximity, at least not with conventional magic. Yet, something in the wizard’s tone and mannerisms said that he felt little fear for the bloodkin bodyguard’s wrath.
Amelia gave a small flick of her pinky finger. “Release him, Zhang. His petulance is beneath our notice.”
Zhang grimaced, baring his incisors for a split-second, then he blurred back to his principal’s side. I wondered what that one was capable of, considering he had been assigned to protect a master vampire. I’d need to watch him, should our paths ever cross. That made me very, very curious about Grythelias. What was this wizard hiding up his sleeve?
The mage in question didn’t even bother to straighten his jacket after the vampire set him down. “Well, if this is all you wanted to discuss, I’d really prefer to call it a night. I have work to do and a Hound to put down. And I need to see your boy here safely to his destination.”
I will be harder to ‘put down’ than you think, half-breed.
“Indeed,” Amelia said in an annoyed tone. “But consider this visit to be a professional courtesy. The Council will suffer no further excuses should the fae fail to hold up their end of our bargain. Fail again, and my superiors will speak to yours to request a replacement.”
The wizard smiled like a serpent. “Have a good evening, Amelia.”
“Do your job, half-breed,” she replied before returning to her vehicle. Moments later, the sedan sped off into the night while the vamp and the wizard watched the taillights fade away into the gloom.
“You could’ve spoken up, you know,” Grythelias said to Monty. “It was your fault that the shadow mage captured you in the first place. If you hadn’t stopped for a snack, he’d never have found you.”
“I might not be the brightest bulb, but I know when to keep my mouth shut,” Monty said. “That Amelia is a piece of work. There’s a reason why the Council put her in charge of the project after Remy got ganked.”
“She’s a pussycat compared to my bosses. Speaking of which, we need to get moving. I don’t want to have to explain why this shipment was late.” Grythelias stretched and cracked his neck. “Daylight will be here sooner than you think. Get your shit together, because we’re heading out in ten.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll be right there.”
The wizard headed back inside the house, leaving the courier on the porch. Clearly, he’d been hired to hide the courier from others of his kind. Vampires were quite good at hiding from humans, but hiding from each other was another matter entirely. Whatever they were trafficking, it was important enough to hire a wizard to conceal their comings and goings.
Monty produced a hand-rolled cigarette, lighting it with a match and taking a deep draw that caused the cherry to glow brightly. The pungent odor of marijuana floated up to my perch in the tree,
which told me that the vampire must’ve retrieved it from this house. Meaning, he’d been here before, perhaps using this place as a safe house or waystation when traveling through the area on errands for the Council.
I wondered if I should wait to capture him. Chances were that he’d be back through here again, perhaps without his half-fae handler. All I’d need to do would be to monitor the residence until he showed up—escaping the notice of Grythelias, of course. A simple matter of patience.
Yet, after the conversation I’d just overheard, I was more inclined to capture the fool immediately so I could question him further. And oh, what questions I had. For instance, was Grythelias acting as a free agent, or did Amelia’s reference to his “people” mean he was being backed by the fae?
And why would the Council send a master vampire to deal with a low-status mage for hire? Something about the situation just didn’t make logical sense. I didn’t know the complete details of the bloodkin plot Colin had so recently foiled, but I did know that we’d barely managed to stop it in time. According to the druid, the results would’ve been disastrous if we hadn’t succeeded.
Again, I wasn’t privy to all that transpired, but I knew enough to wonder if those events weren’t related to these. For one, it was clear that my adoptive father had been conspiring with the vampires. Had he merely acted in pursuit of some personal ambition, or did he initiate that partnership on behalf of the Tuath Dé and fae?
Colin also mentioned that the Fear Doirich was trying to help the vampires break through the Veil that separated the spirit world and our own. There was only one reason the bloodkin would attempt to do so, and that would be to rebirth as many elder vampires as possible—the elders being their primaries.
Primaries were the most powerful entities among every supernatural species, and each of them were true immortals. You could destroy their physical bodies, but not their spirits, which returned across the Veil after each physical death. There they bided their time, slowly gaining enough strength to cross back over to the physical plane and, in the case of an elder vampire, to inhabit a new host body.
These entities were the first bloodkin, and they were the only ones of their species capable of birthing master vampires. In turn, masters were the only vampires—besides primaries—capable of reliably and consistently turning humans into bloodkin by infecting them with the vyrus. Which was fortunate, considering how frequently they fed on humans.
Likewise, primaries were limited in the number of masters they could make, although the exact mechanism that controlled such limitations was a closely guarded secret. That, and the fact that no primaries were currently known to exist on the physical plane, was likely why the vampires hadn’t taken over the Earth. Human industrialization had led to a population boom, and now there were simply too many of us to subjugate, despite our relative frailty. Our newfound ability to rapidly multiply served as an evolutionary advantage that kept the supernatural world cowed in modern times.
Yet there might be dozens of primaries waiting on the other side of the Veil for rebirth. Should they all arrive at once, they could easily spur a similar population explosion among the vampire race—and the end of modern human civilization. If that were the case, the vampires might need magical assistance to maintain a healthy population of human cattle, which could explain why they might conspire with the fae. But what the fae might want in return… that was an interesting mystery, indeed.
A steady supply of children? Or more? Underhill, perhaps?
Underhill was the main source of fae magic. Certainly, all fae possessed some inherent magic, as did many humans, but their advantage lay in the vast magical reservoir that was Underhill itself. That was how the earthbound fae had maintained magical supremacy over humans for millennia.
Likewise, the Faery Courts were always hungry for more power, especially now that the druid had cut them off from easy access to Underhill’s magic. Indeed, the fae had never struggled as they did currently, and thus they must be desperate to regain access to their birthright.
From the moment I unwittingly helped the druid seal the gateways to the fae realms, I had wondered about the repercussions of our journey to Underhill. Perhaps now those chickens had come home to roost. But if the Courts had become reckless enough to try to invade Underhill—no, they’d never be so foolish as to attack the gods.
Yet, something was afoot, and I would like very much to know what was going on. If the fae were working with the Vampyri Council, either the Courts were conspiring behind Maeve’s back to enact this plan, or Maeve was the architect.
Could Maeve be conspiring with the Vampire Nations? Hmm… perhaps it was time I paid a visit to my new Queen.
But first, I had a vampire to capture.
9
I decided the best course of action would be to quietly incapacitate Monty by means of magic, and then abscond before his keeper became aware of my presence. No need to engage in unnecessary violence, after all. Just as I was preparing to spring the trap, Grythelias poked his head out the front door.
“Hey doofus, are you ready, or what?”
“Screw you, Griff. ’Course I’m ready—I pack light,” the stoner replied.
“In ounces, I’m sure,” Grythelias said. “Look, I don’t care about your habits. All I care about is that you don’t mess up again and make me look bad.”
“How did I mess up?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe by getting captured by the wizard?” the half-breed replied. “Or was it losing the package?”
“I didn’t lose the package,” Monty replied. “I just haven’t gotten it yet, is all. I know exactly where it is, and I’m going to get it and deliver it, just as soon as you drop me off downtown.”
“Excuses, excuses. Bottom line is, I’m not the courier—you are. It’s your job to make sure their deliveries arrive safely, not mine. The only thing I’m required to do is to make sure you get to your destination. That’s it, end of discussion. So, do what you have to do. I really don’t care at this point.”
The wizard once more disappeared into the bowels of the house, leaving Monty alone on the front porch muttering to himself.
“Not my fault I ran into a shadow wizard…”
I tuned him out, as I could care less how Monty felt about not completing his job. Nor did I care about what might happen to him should he fail in his current mission. However, I suddenly did care very much about what was in that package, and why the vampires wanted it delivered so badly.
Time to pounce.
Casting a silence spell on the vampire, I encased him in a sphere of shadow magic that was barely large enough to contain him without severing a limb. Then I floated the shadow sphere ahead of me, sprinting back to my car as fast as my tentacles could take me. I was almost to the road when I sensed a presence behind me.
Drat.
When you’re raised among a race of sociopaths who are physically superior to you in every way imaginable, you either learn defensive magic or you die young. Knowing I needed an equalizer against the fae youths who tormented me at every opportunity, I suffered my adoptive mother’s harsh instruction without complaint. Thus, defensive spells were second nature to me—and a good thing too, because the wizard’s surprise attack might have ended my life.
When Griff’s lightning bolt struck, I released one of my shadow tentacles from my body. Placing the closer end in line with the spell’s intended point of contact, I grounded the other end to a nearby tree. I could’ve simply created a shield from shadow matter, but it was a waste of energy for a single magical attack. Besides, I preferred more elegant and efficient solutions to such conundrums.
As expected, my shadow magic funneled the energy of the attack down its length and into the trunk of a cedar tree. Rather unexpectedly, Griff was a much more powerful wizard than I’d anticipated. When his spell struck, it caused an explosion that splintered the tree with an ear-shattering crack. I stood mere footsteps away from the tree when the spell detonated, and unfortunately
, the concussive blast was enough to toss me into a nearby oak.
Years of practice had resulted in complete control over the shadow limbs I created with the shade’s magic, all of which obeyed my commands as if they were my own. Instead of crashing into the tree in a fight-ending collision, I used the impetus of the concussive wave to swing around the trunk, concealing myself in shadow on the other side. And just in time, as the wizard had already launched a fireball at me from wherever he hid in the woods.
I scanned the area using my shadow sight, but to no avail. Either he was using an advanced invisibility spell or he’d managed to partially shift himself into another dimension. It might have impressed me if I wasn’t incensed that I’d let him surprise me with the force of that initial attack.
“Elemental spells—how tedious,” I said, throwing my voice in hopes of taunting him into revealing his location. “I’d expect more from a fae-trained mage. But then again, you are half-human—perhaps you learned the arts from them?”
A grotesque, tittering laughter that seemingly came from everywhere at once was the only response. I continued to survey my surroundings, drawing my shadow tentacles in close to ward off any surprise attacks. A bit of air disturbance to my left was the only warning as an invisible something wrapped around my neck and squeezed.
The unseen thing might’ve been a giant snake, considering how it constricted my air and blood. A normal human mage would have just seconds before passing out, and good luck fending off such an attack in time. Out of pure reflex, my hands went to my throat, grabbing at the oily, slick appendage I still could not see.
Then, I felt a small prick on the side of my neck, and suddenly the invisible limb began to coalesce into view as it began to drink my blood. As its capillaries began to fill with my life essence, lines of pink and red began to appear in the air, taking the rough shape of the appendage that was choking the life from me. Instantly I knew what sort of creature had me in its grip, and why the half-breed had been so confident when threatened by Zhang earlier.